Attack on space and Citizenship of Muslims in India (Maktoob)

By Saddam Hussian & Nafis Haider

The process of “otherisation” of Indian Muslims is not limited merely to their religious and cultural aspects but is extending to their spaces as well. Though demolition has been a political strategy for silencing dissent before, the surge exemplified by post-Ram Navami incidents depicts a particular anti-Muslim colour to this unjust use of administrative power. Muslims who opposed violent progressions by the Hindu right and hate speech during Ram Navami had their houses demolished in the name of the anti-encroachment drive.

The act of eviction and displacement appears to be an active process in criminalising and othering spaces of Muslims. The constant targeting of Muslim spaces and bringing them under the ambit of the anti-encroachment drive is an attempt to present the spaces Muslims occupy as problematic habitation and illegal ownership which needs demolition.

It serves two fundamental purposes: Presenting the Muslim majority spaces as illegal and bringing it to prove its legality time and again in front of the judiciary, characterising the intentionality of the state against Muslim spaces.

Inside the community, the Modi-led government attempts to instil a dilemma among Indian Muslims from identifying themselves as part of the nation, Indian State as their own. With the bell for Muslim genocide ringing loud, and a systematic marginalisation ongoing, targeting Muslim-dominated areas for eviction and anti-encroachment drive create social anxiety among the community and feeling of being left out.

In the recent procession of Hindu Jan Akrosh Morcha organised by Sakal Hindu Samaj in Mumbai, accompanied by others like BJP-RSS and other Hindu nationalist organisations gave calls against Muslims. Moreover, BJP MP Parvesh Verma called for a total boycott of “these people ” covertly denoting the Muslim population.

Even before this, Haridwar Sansad of December 17-19, 2021, the attendees were pledged to boycott Muslims from all spheres of their lives. This rise of new violent tendencies in Indian society is what Appadurai termed as Genocidalism, which works as a violent extension of nationalism which moves past “sporadic, spontaneous or localised episodes of violence” and necessitates “systematic bolstering and mobilisation”.

The case of India’s use of Bulldozers and anti-encroachment drives resembles Nixon’s ‘War On Drugs’ policy. Under the aegis of promoting law and order in society, the Nixon administration strategically discriminated against Black people and criminalised them. Latent in the rhetoric of the ‘War On Drug’,  was the particular targeting of black people who were arrested even for petty crimes like possession of marijuana, and peddlers and sentenced to long-term imprisonment.

The Black people were more vulnerable due to their class, and racial background pushing them to marginality. The policy was doubly detrimental for them when their marginality is accompanied by the active role of white-dominated authorities in perpetuating racial discrimination. Hence, in lieu of law and order, Black are subjected to discrimination, atrocities and racial oppression. In India, the Modi government is pushing for a similar strategy against the space that Muslims occupy.

A deliberate attempt to characterise loopholes in the legality of the Muslim habitation which is general and the constant issuing of notice for eviction to those localities by civic bodies signifies the state action against Muslims. Moreover, formulation and execution of the policy of anti-encroachment drive which is inherently discriminatory against the marginalised. The Modi govt is taking forward a political act of suppressing dissenting voices of the community by manipulating executive power.